A Novel Approach for Increased Depth Perception in Stereo Images

Stereoscopy is a technique to create the illusion of depth from given two- dimensional images. Most stereoscopic methods present two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. These two dimensional images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3D depth. Binocular Just-Noticeable Difference (BJND) is a visibility threshold defined for the stereo image and it has been modeled using psychophysical experiments. It describes the sensitivity of the human visual system to luminance changes, in stereo images. In this algorithm, the BJND model is utilized for enhancing the sharpness of stereo images. An over enhancement problem in the sharpness enhancement of stereo image is also defined and an effective solution is found within an optimization framework. The algorithm can provide sharpness enhanced stereo images without excessive distortion.